Effective widths of plates loaded uniaxially

Abstract An approximate method for the analysis of axially loaded plates with initial imperfections is presented. Formulae for the computation of effective widths of rectangular plates having nine different combinations of boundary conditions have been derived using the energy method; all the boundary edges are constrained to remain straight in-plane, except when one of the edges is free to wave out-of-plane. Design curves have been presented for each set of support conditions, and these can be employed to obtain solutions within acceptable engineering accuracy for practical structures having small imperfections.